Chapter Text
The door slammed shut and the room was shrouded in darkness. Arthur and Merlin had been kidnapped by mercenaries and had been thrown into the dungeons of an old ruin that the mercenaries were using as a camp. Before they had been thrown into the cell, a sorcerer working for whoever had paid the mercenaries had cast a memory spell on them. According to said sorcerer, they would forget everything that had happened since the spell was cast in three days' time - Merlin had confirmed with some discreet magic that they were not, in fact, bluffing. Whoever the mercenaries were working for wanted to get information from Arthur without him remembering giving it to them. The knowledge that Camelot had enemies who were rich enough to pay bounty hunters but also willing to work with sorcerers was worrying and Arthur really couldn’t see how they were getting out of this one. Merlin, however, had started planning their escape ever since the sorcerer had turned up. Hopefully, they were going to be transported at some point and could use that as a chance to escape.
It was cold and dark in the cell. Merlin could barely see his own hands in front of him. He had already tried to use his magic to weaken the bars but they were (of course) magically reinforced. There was no way he could open them, at least not without Arthur noticing. It
would still be risky even though he would forget soon, a lot could happen in four days. Merlin’s best hope for the moment was to wait, their captors had to come back to check on them soon, maybe then he could find out more.
Three hours later they were still alone in the cell. Arthur was growing restless, annoyed and very annoyed. “Why are they keeping us here so long?” He asked, for the third time. “It just doesn’t make sense. If they’re going to interrogate us, why don’t they just do it? Why keep us here?”
“Maybe they’re waiting for someone,” Merlin suggested.
“Maybe,” they sat in silence for a moment.
“I just wish we could remember this afterwards,” Merlin said, “ even if we do find out something we’ll just forget.” Their conversation faded into silence and they both fell into an uneasy sleep.
When Merlin woke up he had no idea how long he’d been asleep. Arthur hadn’t woken up yet so Merlin did his best to be as quiet as possible as he stretched to look through the crack at the top of the wall. Through it, a sliver of sky was visible. On the other side of the wall, there was a striking sunrise. It would have been quite beautiful had it not been for the circumstances. They couldn’t have slept very long, then. Merlin sat down and sighed. A few minutes later Arthur began to stir.
“How long have I been asleep?” he muttered.
“Only a couple of hours.”
“Right… You know, this is all incredibly annoying.”
“We’ve been kidnapped and all you can muster is annoyance?!” Really, Merlin was also quite annoyed, though he didn’t want to admit it.
“Well it’s not like I’m worried.” He, actually, was quite worried.
Before Merlin could retort, the door opened and a leering man entered.
“It’s time for you to start talking.” The man brandished a rusty knife and smiled.
Arthur stood up and took a step toward the man, “You must be stupid if you think I’m going to tell you anything!.”
“Really?” The man took a few steps forward and pointed the knife at Arthur, who moved to the side and hit him in the side of the head.
“Ow!” the man exclaimed. It would have been almost comical if it weren’t for the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Arthur quickly left the cell and crouched under the stairs, beckoning for Merlin to join him. They were both hidden underneath by the time their captors had descended the staircase. Once the group of men was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking very confused, Arthur leapt out and hit one of them over the head. A commotion broke out and Merlin and Arthur escaped up the stairs leaving a crowd of bamboozled goons looking for them.
When they were far enough away from the ruin they began the journey back to Camelot. It would be long without the horses but hopefully they would get there in a few days and the lands were rich so the journey would be pleasant.
I’m
“It feels strange to think about though,” Merlin pointed out that night, “ whatever we do or say now doesn’t matter. I could say anything and it wouldn’t mean anything in a few days.” It was late and they were sitting in front of a crackling fire. There was a brief silence before Arthur responded.
“What could you possibly tell me that I haven’t heard from you before? Every other word that comes out of your mouth is treason.”
“I could think of a few things,” said Merlin with a wistful smile.
“Like what?” Arthur asked, intrigued by the notion that his manservant had secrets even he didn’t know.
Merlin went quiet, thinking about what to say.
”Maybe I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he replied.
”You know you're not allowed to lie to me right?”
”I’m not?!”
”You're really not funny.”
”Neither are you.”
They sat in comfortable silence for almost half an hour before deciding to try to sleep. The ground was hard but it wasn’t so bad. They both wished the guards hadn’t taken their bedrolls when they’d been captured.
The next morning they woke early and started walking again at the crack of dawn. The sunrise was beautiful and if they hadn't been in the middle of nowhere with no supplies, Merlin would have thought it was almost romantic.
”So,” asked Arthur, ”are you going to tell me your secrets? I'll forget before we get back to Camelot anyway, like you said, it doesn't matter, and besides, I want to know what my daft manservant can have kept from me.”
Merlin considered this, there were a lot of things he hadn’t told Arthur. He knew he wouldn’t respond well to finding out about Merlin’s magic. Arthur had been taught that magic was evil his whole life, telling him would be asking him to throw out his core beliefs - not to mention how betrayed he would feel. No, Merlin wouldn’t subject him to that, not even for a day. He settled for something else. Something that wouldn’t be so painful for Arthur.
“I love you.”
Arthur looked stunned, ”Oh.”
Merlin internally kicked himself, he had known this was a bad idea but he had done it anyway, he was such an idiot! Confessing his feelings to a non-drunk, non-bewitched Arthur was a stupid thing to do. How could he have been so naive that he-
His thoughts were interrupted when Arthur cupped his face in his hands and kissed him. It was like magic, Merlin would know. It felt like the kiss went on for an eternity. ‘Kiss’, that word felt so inadequate. It didn't even come close to describing what he was experiencing. It should be called something else, with lots of apostrophes and circumflexes, and even then it wouldn’t be enough.
They broke apart, bursting the bubble they had been in and returning to reality. They were both panting.
”I love you too,” said Arthur, fondly, ”didn’t you know?”
Merlin just smiled, like nothing in the world could even begin to touch the elation he was feeling.
They stayed close as they continued their walk back to Camelot. Fortunately they found a river to drink from and fruit to eat on the way. When the sun had set and it was too dark to keep walking they set up a camp again and fell asleep curled into each other by the fire. The spell had erased both their memories by morning. Arthur was deeply unsettled by having lost several days worth of memory but in lieu of a good explanation chalked it up to heatstroke, despite it not even being summer yet. Merlin had a lingering feeling that something was missing for the next few weeks that he couldn’t seem to shake. He thought it must just be one of those things, loneliness wasn't an unfamiliar feeling for him, it was just there sometimes.
In the end they both moved on and forgot about the incident (slightly less literally than the first time) and life went back to normal. Nothing that important could have happened, right?